OOo Draw and Impress can assist you to easily export vector graphics to bitmap pictures. And the other direction is also available. You can convert bitmap pictures to vector graphics.
As you know, bitmap pictures are those images created by a digital camera. Pictures consist of hundreds or thousands of rows and columns of pixels. When you zoom deep into a picture, you can see those pixels.
The drawing tools of Draw and Impress generate vector graphics. Vector graphics can be scaled to any size, and you will never see any pixels or artificial blocks.
To export a vector graphic to a bitmap picture
Select the vector graphic in Draw or Impress.
Choose File - Export.
Select a bitmap file format like BMP, JPG, or PNG.
Enter a name and click Export.
Take care that Selection has a check mark to export only the selected graphic. Otherwise you would export the whole page.
The bitmap picture has about the same size as the original vector graphic, when you insert it again using Insert - Picture - From File. The bigger your original vector graphic is, the more pixels will be created for the exported picture.
Sometimes you don't want to create a file from the vector graphic.
Right-click the vector graphic in Draw or Impress.
Choose Convert - To Bitmap.
When you export a document to HTML, for example, OOo will automatically convert the vector graphics inside the document to bitmap pictures, and will insert the correct links to your document.
To convert a bitmap picture to a vector graphic
Sometimes you find a nice bitmap picture which you would like to scale to a much bigger size. But without seeing the individual pixels. Or you need the picture as line art to apply some other effects. OOo can create a vector graphic with a fine quality, depending on the contrast of the bitmap.
Right-click the bitmap picture in Draw or Impress.
Choose Convert - To Polygon from the context menu.
You see the integrated vectorizer of OOo.
Once your bitmap picture is converted to line art, you can open the Edit Points toolbar and use the mouse to drag individual points.
Create interesting effects in a few seconds.
Close the Edit Points mode, right-click the line art and choose Split to split it into separate objects. Fill them with colors, move or rotate them. Graphics is really easy and fun using OpenOffice.org.


